How Many Retakes is Too Many?

This time I focused on practice problems, practice problems and practice problems. I did one full MGMAT practice test and ran the GMAT Prep quant section several times (maybe 5+ times). The last time I ran GMAT Prep quant was the morning of the test. I wouldn't advise that everyone do this however since it's a lot of questions. I realized that I needed to do something to jumps tart my brain before the test and this was my solution. Running the quant section the morning of the test calmed my nerves and made the transition from my computer screen at home to the computer screen at the test center seem natural. Anyway, here is what I used for practice problems. And this time I did them in stretches of at least 20 - 30 timed problems per sitting and did a thorough review of all the problems I got wrong or guessed.

1) Kaplan Quiz Bank. I think I am one of the first to give actual feedback on this product. If you can fit it into your budget then invest the $200 dollars. I paid the $200 and received access to 1,000 practice problems from Kaplan. The product is just plain awesome. It allows you to create your own quizzes by topic and level of difficulty. You also pick how many questions you want to do. I focused on my weak areas in math and completed all of the SC and CR questions in here. Explanations are provided for all problems. Although many say that Kaplan's problems suck, the problems in this quiz bank are well written and it is clear what the writer is asking.

Go through these in detail and make notes on the problems you need to review later on and stick them in a three ring binder. MAKE NOTES! When you write something down you have permanently "captured" it and it will always be there for you to review and benefit from later on. Reviewing by just looking at the explanation and tucking it away in your memory is just a waste of time in my opinion because you will forget important concepts.

2) Kaplan 800 - The RC and CR weren't all that helpful. However the SC questions are money. There are about 100 or so in here. I worked on all of them in two sittings. By the way, I learned how to reduce my SC time significantly using MGMAT's methods, which are available through MGMAT's online courses and labs. (Thank you Emily S. and Dan G.). I forced myself to complete SC problems in under one minute and eventually improved my speed and accuracy. Consequently, this also helped me speed up my reading time on CR and RC questions. MGMAT's SC techniques are excellent.

DO ALL OF THE MATH QUESTIONS in Kaplan 800 and go through the explanations in detail. I can confidently say that the advanced methods taught in this book helped me whiz through the GMAT Prep quant sections. One thing I realized is that the math questions I saw on the actual test are much harder than the ones I saw in GMAT Prep. In order to improve, you need to practice with challenging material. The GMAT 800 math questions are perfect for this.

3) OGv11 - PS is okay. However, the DS is excellent, especially the algebra and number properties problems. You must do all of the CR and SC in here because it's important to understand the test maker's writing style. I only did two RC passages, but not because they are bad practice problems. It just wasn't realistic practice to read a complex or lengthy passage from a book when you really need to be training yourself to be reading a long or complex pasage off of a computer sceen. So this is where the Kaplan Quiz Bank RC helped.

This is what I focused on over a period of 5 weeks or so. I improved my stamina using the Kaplan Quiz Bank's questions. One day I would complete ~30 practice quant problems and spent the remainder of my study session reviewing the problems I got wrong or guessed on. The following day I would do ~40 verbal (RC, CR and SC) and reviewed the ones I got wrong or guessed on. This cycle was highly productive and believe it or not, I actually began to enjoy the problems, especially when my hit rates started out at 75% or so for both quant and verbal and began improving each subsequent day. Towards the end I was achieving a 90%+ hit rate for quant, but more importantly, I was getting 95% hit rates on verbal....verbal was my biggest weakness and it became my strength.

Remember, try to get yourself to complete SC in one minute or less. MGMAT's split and resplit methods work well, but only if you keep doing practice problems to train yourself. By doing so, you will improve your SC speed and accuracy and then give yourself more time to answer CR and RC. I think Eric mentioned that it's important to sometimes look away from the screen for a few seconds to recover and let your brain rest for a bit. If you find yourself blanking out during verbal take a couple of deep breaths and then turn your attention back to the screen. It worked wonders for me. You don't want to get into a situation where you are tired during the verbal and just guess on what seems to be a hard verbal question and plan on making up points on an easier one. The question you guessed may have been a medium level difficulty problem which seemed difficult because you were exhausted.

I improved my quant by forcing myself to work on more challenging problems. For me, the combination of the Kaplan quiz bank math problems along with the practice problems from GMAT 800 improved my accuracy rate on 600-700 level math problems and allowed me to attack 700+ level problems with confidence.

I reduced my "test taking jitters" by running the GMAT Prep software's tests (quant portion) to get used to the format. Maybe it's just me, but at first I found it easier to identify the properties or traps being tested in quant problems when I saw the problem on paper (the OGv11 for example). When I saw a similar problem from GMAT Prep on a computer screen it "seemed" harder, but this was because I was uncomfortable reading quant problems on a computer screen at first. I came to realize this during my review sessions. There were several instances where I saw a problem I got wrong and say to myself, "Duh, I know how to do this one." The point here is to get as much practice as possible off of a computer screen. Once you get used to doing electronic problems, your ability to skillfully identify subtle traps and quickly determine what properties the question is testing for improves quickly. I used to fear the GMAT Prep screen...especially after the results of my 2nd test. After doing a lot of practice using electronic problems, I became very comfortable with the CAT.

Also, when I reviewed the GMAT Prep quant problems I got wrong or guessed on, I forced myself to work towards the right solution rather than posting to this site and having someone else explain it. Sometimes I spent 15 minutes working through a number properties problem. There is a lot of value in being able to work towards the solution yourself because once you get to the right answer on your own, you understand how your own brain works in order to get to the answer. Remember, there can be several approaches to get to the same answer. Your way, as long as it's fundamentally correct in its approach and can be executed within a reasonable amount of time (under 2 minutes) is the best if it works for you and is much better than someone else's approach if 1/4 or 1/5 or 1/6, etc. of the another's explanation doesn't make sense to you. Does this make sense?

Finally, make sure the blood is flowing to your brain the day of the test. Prior to the test, if you need to run a couple of problems from GMAT Prep to get your mind working properly then do it. I hope this helps and good luck.

Bye bye GMAT.

This topic has expert replies